| Our degree schemes are designed simultaneously to reflect and foster the intellectual and personal development you will experience as a student with us. The teaching style and content progress as you progress recognising the ways you change not only as a student but as a person. To see a list of all available modules, just click here. Pre-enrolment guides are available below: Level 2: click here. Level 3: click here. | Level 1 | | Academic Development | Skills Development | | In Level 1 we offer a broad introduction to the different aspects of political life and experience within states, relations between states, and some of the ways in which these have been theorized. The modules have been designed to introduce you to political theory, comparative politics and international relations, and they do not require you to have studied Politics at A/AS Level. | We encourage you to develop the basic skills of university life: studying more independently; expressing yourself verbally and in writing; taking part in small group discussions. You will get used to new forms of learning and have the chance to reflect on what you want out of your time at university. It might seem a bit early, but this is also the time to start thinking about how to enhance your overall skills portfolio so that you can present yourself in the most favourable light to potential employers. | | Level 2 | | Academic Development | Skills Development | | In Level 2 we build on your basic learning and you can begin to specialize in some of the different lines of debate, theorization and enquiry which make this such an exciting and varied subject. For example, you might consider the reasons for the growing importance of fundamental human rights and freedoms and racial and sexual equality, or examine the relationship between the media, culture and politics, or evaluate different theories of justice and equality. Equally, you might decide to focus on studying political organizations or security issues, or to analyse the politics of a particular country or region. | We want to you to extend yourself a little further, developing your skills of time management and computer literacy. As you will now have a greater command of a particular body of information and ideas about politics and international relations, we can begin to focus on your individual presentation skills - on the ways you manage information and ideas and how to present them clearly and concisely. We also begin to offer careers advice. | | Level 3 | | Academic Development | Skills Development | | In Level 3 you will be able to develop your own interests, investigate particular topics and issues in depth, and fine-tune your analytical and presentational skills. To this end, we offer more specialized seminar-based options (‘special subjects’), specialized options for student team research (‘researching politics’), and the opportunity to do an individual dissertation. Your own learning becomes more independent, self-directed and research-orientated. Your studies can be global in scope or more philosophical in nature. Among other things, you will develop a detailed understanding of the many ways in which power can be exercised in national, regional and global political systems. In Level 3 there is also the chance to undertake an internship in the Welsh Assembly, an opportunity to acquire first-hand experience of parliamentary politics. | We think that this is the time for you to put your skills to work for yourself. In all the modules you will combine a detailed and rigorous intellectual approach with the development of all your general skills. In the ‘Researching Politics’ modules, you will be part of a team collaborating on a research project, managing your own meetings and deciding how to allocate tasks. You will develop presentation and report writing skills. In the special subject, dissertation and internship modules you will also learn how to manage yourself and how to undertake in-depth problem-solving work. The level 3 modules have acquired a reputation for being one of the distinctive attractions of studying in the Politics and International Relations degree schemes in Swansea. Many of our students have considered them to be their most valuable learning experience. | | |
